Plagiarism of plot points from a novel

[Sean]

Has anybody had any experience of plagiarism of major plot points from their novels and if so, what did they do about it?

The last two episodes of Sherlock on BBC this week had a number of similarities with my novel Beer Goggles - too many to be coincidence. My suspicions were raised the previous week when a number of things that occur in Beer Goggles occurred.

Here's a list :

1)Psychopathic serial killer, who is a well-connected pillar of society

2)Extremely logical ,socially awkward, protagonist, with close friend sidekick - but who cannot romantically speak to women.

3)Private number given out by a bit-part woman(although not subsequently used in Sherlock, pivotal in Beer Goggles)

4)Secret doors, in order to access a large building undetected.

5)A logical twist, whereby the answer to a posed question is assumed to be male (Sherlock's brother?), but turns out to be female, turning the plot on its head.

6) Doppelgangers - a female character the protagonists have met previously being introduced and denying being involved (Sherlock's sister impersonating Smith's daughter in this episode, one of twin sisters in my novel)

7) Unique method of disposing of the bodies within a building owned by the psychopath where the murders are committed.

I was prepared to put the above down to coincidence, as the definitive scene in the novel where the main character is placed in a locked room with a gun with a single bullet and asked to kill his best friend by a psychopathic serial killer, in order to be allowed to live, was not present.

I watched the last episode expecting that scene to be included, while hoping it wasn't and lo-and-behold a scarily similar scene was present - Sherlock is given a gun with a single bullet in a locked room and told to kill Watson or Mycroft in order to save someone's life.

I hawked my novel around for many years before and after I published it myself on Amazon in August 2012, including getting it seen by a number of influential people and I think someone on the Sherlock production team has seen it and 'passed on' the plot points. If they have only seen the synopsis, they wouldn't have known that it is on Amazon already, so has a definitive date of existence.

Does this prior existence give me a case? Can all the similarities listed above be deemed to be coincidence?

I've been fuming ever since it aired, but don't know what, if anything I can do.

Sean

[Michael]

I'd say the bulk of the things you listed are well-known and well-used story telling tropes.

[Alicia]

Sean wrote: "Has anybody had any experience of plagiarism of major plot points from their novels and if so, what did they do about it?

The last two episodes of Sherlock on BBC this week had a number of similar..."

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, only specific expressions of those ideas (i.e., the words you use to develop the ideas).

And I agree with Michael, that those are not only common, but cliches in the thriller fields - there are no ideas under the sun (except mine, of course - hehe).

Just make sure your execution is wonderful - your writing - and you will become popular if lucky and well advertised and well promoted. Your writing IS protected, and is what makes YOU unique. Don't worry about plot points.

New writers always think they're being plagiarized - and some are! So make sure someone isn't using your WORDS, because those ARE protected.

A famous case was a 'writer' who took a Romance, changed it to M/M, made a few minor other changes - and published it. That 'writer' (and I use the term loosely) was unlucky in that some of the Romance writer's fans liked both F/M and M/M romances, and told her what had been done.

[T4bsF (Call me Flo)]

I agree with both the above. There are only so many storylines to follow...... the differences being how the storyline is woven in, but from the points you've raised, it all sounds pretty standard.

[Sean]

It wasn't any one aspect I was annoyed at, but all of them together seems to be a bit of a stretch for it to be coincidental.

However, If there's nothing that can be done, then so be it. Thanks for your comments.

The thing is, if I'd written a novel about a boy wizard with evil incarnate and a fight to the death, I'd have expected a letter from J.K Rowling's lawyer. Glad to know that wouldn't actually be the case.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

As it was an episode of Sherlock, I doubt it is plagiarism, unless this episode wasn't based on the original stories.

[Richard]

There's been any number of Harry Potter rip-offs in the past few years. As long as they're not plagiarising or passing off, I doubt JKR's lawyers lose any sleep over them: they're not going to adversely affect her sales.

And, on the bright side, look on this as confirming you're a better writer than Gatiss and Moffat: that last episode of Sherlock really was shite.

[Billy]

You could write a book about how the BBC steel money for crap quality from you Snd now they've moved on to your potential best seller... and your soul.

Devils.